I first learned of VTech’s V.Flash console in late 2006. Shortly thereafter, I purchased a game to be played on the system so that I could study the optical format and understand the data formats therein (it’s a weird hobby of mine).

Eventually, I found a new in box V.Flash console for relatively cheap and snatched it up. It arrived but I never got around to opening it at the time. I have accumulated several more games for the system in the meantime. I got it down from a shelf today:

Click for larger image

I thought it had only been 6 or 7 years since I bought the system. Turns out that it was almost 9 years ago that I picked it up:

I checked my Amazon order records for more details– turns out that I only paid about US$26 for it. I guess I snagged it during what is called “the trough of no/low value” because when I look it up now, asking prices for an NIB unit are substantially higher.

Surprisingly, there are no YouTube unboxing videos for this thing. So I guess it falls to me. Unboxing videos aren’t really my thing. Instead, please accept this series of photos documenting various aspects of the unit and its packaging. There is a lot to cover.

Just when I think I might be hitting a point of diminishing returns, I find 16 more items on my new favorite eBay store that don’t show up in the MobyGames database.

This lot contains 2 items that are in obscure franchises first seen in my last acquisition log entry (Dropout Trivia and Brain Bytes):

Click for larger image

• Earth Scout: Another in the “Brain Bytes Bite-Size Learning Fun” series. 1999 title that purports to teach geography skills. From Edmark, by now an IBM company.
• Search & Rescue 3: From Global Star Software, copyright date unknown. MobyGames has a number of the games in this series, but not this one yet.
• Dropout Entertainment Trivia Game: Presumably the entertainment counterpart to the sports variant I found for the last entry. 1996 game from Elsinore, published by WizardWorks.
• Jubilee’s Journey: “A Jane Goodall environmental journey”. 1996 educational game from Mind Magic.

Click for larger image

• Enemies From Space: A SoftKey release of “the next generation of an arcade classic”. 1997 title by TLC Properties, a subsidiary of The Learning Tree. The screenshots look a bit Galaga-like. The cover art also promises 10 free hours of Compuserve.
• The Fox & The Pussy Cat: This is a Mumbo Jumbo title and I usually expect better from them. However, the screenshots on cover art of this 2004 game are fairly uninspired, appearing about 10 years out of date.
• Slot Car Racing: It’s possible that this is supposed to have “3-D” as a prefix; I’m not quite sure. The cover art does state that a 3D video card is required. 1998 game by Toys by Phil and published by ValuSoft.
• Race Driver: Another rather generically-named game. This one is from Codemasters. It comes with 3 discs. There are 2 copies of disc 1, one in English and one in French, while disc 2 is marked as data. The database already contains several racing games from Codemasters, but I can’t match this one to any of the ones on record.

Click for larger image

• World of Shooting 2005: The title of this game from WS Enterprise is rather to the point. The title also implies that there are other versions for different years. MobyGames has no record of these.
• Clue: A DVD game of the venerable classic board game. Copyright 2006 by Hasbro.
• Ann’s Learning Games: 1994 game from Putnam New Media. The title implies multiple educational games.
• Jammin’ In Jamaica: A 2003 title from Mattel. Since it’s from Mattel, I figured it might possibly be a game. However, it bears no ESRB badge. It also says “Approximately 44 minutes, color, not rated”, so perhaps it’s just a multimedia disc exhibiting a video.

Click for larger image

• Canada Hunt: I suspect this is another in the venerable genre of hunting games, only set in Canada. 2009 title, and the companies mentioned include “Maximum Family Games” and “PSR Outdoors: The Most Realistic Hunting Games”.
• Deep Sea Explorer: Another MatchBox title, “with real U.S. Coast Guard video!” 1999 title.
• Casual Combo Collection: Shovelware collection which seems to consist of 4 color-matching games: Woodville Chronicles, Wizard Land, Age of Emeralds, and Lost in Reefs. Published by ValuSoft-Cosmi.
• Film Fatale: Lights, Camera, Madness! Another hidden objects game. 2012 game from Fugazo. It has a ratings system I haven’t heard of before: Family Friendly Ratings Council, or FFRC. I recommend that you not visit the site directly as it’s home to a pr0n squatter. If you must visit, check out the last Web Archive version before the squatter took over.

I have been raiding my new favorite eBay store for stuff that isn’t yet present in the database. This store happens to have lots of cheap games and a surprisingly large collection missing from MobyGames. I load up my eBay shopping cart until such cart gets too heavy to push (this might sound like a joke but it’s true– after a certain point, it took way too long to add a new item to the shopping cart; after 29 discs, I had to call it quits).

This batch was heavy on trivia, i.e., there were at least 2 items revolving around trivia:

Click for larger image

• Sci-Fi Channel Trivia Game: 1996 game by Byron Preiss Multimedia
• Dropout Sports Trivia Game: It’s a sports trivia game. It seems to be crossed with some kind of grid puzzle game. Curiously, you can play this against an AI opponent, which strikes me as a tad unfair. Copyright 1996 Elsinore Multimedia, distributed by good old WizardWorks. I have also learned that there were other trivia games under the Dropout umbrella.
• Neopets Codestone Quest: I don’t know much about NeoPets. I was concerned it was the sort of thing that might need extra physical components, like Skylanders. This is by Mumbo Jumbo, though, and I’ve enjoyed all of their games so far.
• The Scavenger Hunt Series: Africa: Possibly a hidden object game, long before that was an established genre category. Copyright 1993-1994 from oddly-stylized SWeDE Corporation.

Here are the educational acquisitions from this raid:

Click for larger image

• Reading Roller Coaster: 1998 educational title from Edmark, an IBM company. “Brain Bytes: Byte Size Learning Fun!” might be a series of educational titles.
• Trailblazer: This is a 1994 CD adventure by the legendary MECC (of Oregon Trail fame) and it surprises me that it’s not in the database yet. Therefore, possibly not a game.
• Richard Scarry’s Busytown: Best Activity Center Ever: Designed for 3 to 7 year olds. 1998 educational game from Simon & Schuster.
• Animal Genius: A 2008 game from Artech Studios. The cover art promises 5 addictive games, likely pertaining to animals. The cover art is sharp but the screenshots look shockingly primitive for a 2008 title. I’m wagering this was a set of Flash games for the web that was later packaged and sold on a disc.

And here are the girl-oriented titles from the lot I procured:

Click for larger image

• Rider’s World: I Want to Ride: I have covered 2 horse-riding series on this blog so far (Let’s Ride and Time to Ride). Based on the colonized title “I Want To Ride”, I’m guessing there are other titles in this series. Copyright 2006 and the companies mentioned are Aipirinha Games, Calibre, and CDV.
• Girl Talk: The CD-ROM Game of Truth or Dare: Rated E for everyone, which doesn’t really square with what I’ve always heard about Truth or Dare sessions. 1998 game by Humancode and published by Hasbro. Perhaps positioned as competition for Mattel’s contemporary Barbie games.
• Atomic Betty: Intergalactic Conspiracy: This feels like it might be based on an existing cartoon property. Sure enough. From Brighter Minds in 2006 (I’ve played some of their stuff).

A grab bag of gaming oddities:

Click for larger image

• The Game of Komando City: This 1997 title promises to be a game of some sort (the word is right there in the title). A little more googling indicates that this is some kind of computer training. Companies mentioned include Komando Corporation, Peak Interactive, and AT&T WorldNet Service (the latter is probably an ISP offer).
• Camp Make-A-Wacky: 1996 kids game (possibly edutainment) from Turner New Media.
• Tearstone: “A mind-bending hidden object adventure!” This is a hidden object game. I still have yet to actually play a hidden object game. I have a feeling that it’s easy points for MobyGames. Copyright date is confusingly listed as 2002-2013. Companies mentioned are Tag Publishing as well as ValuSoft-Cosmi, which is the first time I realized that those 2 purveyors of budgetware had merged.

And now we come to the section of “stuff that almost certainly contains no gaming elements but is still interesting”:

Click for larger image

• Internet The City (2 CD-ROMs): A Guided Tour Through The Internet. No copyright date on either of the disc. From Simply Interactive. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that their URL simply.com doesn’t host their original site anymore.
• How To Computers: 1994 learning title from CRT Multimedia. I feel like they were decades ahead of the trend, grammar-wise (“How to ‘noun’” seems to be a recent fad). This promised to teach word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and desktop publishing.
• Art Explosion: Seasons, Events, & Holidays: 1998 title from Nova Development Corporation. 15,000 sensational images for year-round celebrations.
• Virgin’s One Tribe: I didn’t get a close-up picture of this title on eBay. I just saw it was a Virgin Interactive title, and that it didn’t show up on MobyGames. I was hoping it was a missing game. Not quite: “An interactive encyclopedia of people and cultures.”

And a final grab bag of general oddities:

Click for larger image

• 3D Action & Adventure: A 1994 Shovelware disc
• Dennis Miller: That’s Geek To Me: 1995 title by Sanctuary Woods.
• TesselMania!: The art and design tool, also by MECC. Create tesselated images.